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Will Homeopathy and iTunes Cure AIDS?

Peter Chappell (10 Canards) is a founder member of the Society of Homeopaths, he is a Fellow of the Society and has written several influential books on homeopathy. He describes himself as an inventor and a visionary, a charity worker and teacher. He also appears to be dangerously deluded.

Chappell makes his name by producing his own homeopathic preparations. His idea is to produce specific remedies to cure named diseases, despite this being very much against the rules of the Society of Homeopaths. His breakthrough is something called ‘resonance healing’. I think you have to buy one of his books if you want some clues as to what this is. Apparently, he only ‘partially reveals’ methods. Cunning.

Peter Chappell’s PC Remedies are clearly not normal homeopathic remedies. Whatever they are though, the Society of Homeopaths appears to want to give his ideas a big airing as they are being discussed at a special SoH symposium to be held in December 2007 in London on the treatment of HIV/AIDS with homeopathy. Chappell advocates the use of his remedies on his website. You will have to log in as a homeopath and answer secret questions that only a homeopath could answer to view this stuff, but it is well worth it (clue: Hahnemann, Kent, Pulsatilla). You will also have to offend the souls of your ancestors by ticking a few declarations, but in order to find out how prominent homeopaths are advocating mad treatments in Africa for deadly diseases then I think my gran will understand.

Chappell is selling remedies for not just AIDS, but just about everything including:

Bilharzia

Diarrhoea in infants and children in Africa

Malaria

Leprosy

Nagasaki and Hiroshima Atomic Trauma

Snake Bites Antidote

Mobile Phone Toxicity

Bed Wetting in children

Religious Fanaticism

Pornography

and so on.

This is what he says about his HIV vaccine:

This is my attempt to produce a vaccination. No one has tried to use it yet, I think. The ideal scenario is to give it to teenagers in one village and watch the HIV rate over a year compared to a similar village. It should be given daily for a month. That’s it.

Now, as with all homeopaths, what Chappell is missing is the slightest bit of evidence that anything he is offering is effective. He makes staggeringly bold claims, such as “it works in urgent situations in seconds or minutes. ” For his AIDS work he says,

we have no proof in scientific terms that the AIDS treatment is effective, in practice it is very reliable and thousands of people have recovered

This is difficult to understand. On one hand he is quite clear he has no evidence for any healing claims but then says it works anyway. This is typical homeopath double-think. There is the belief that scientific evidence is only one form of evidence when in reality it is the only sort of evidence that is justifiable to use when playing with the lives of desperate people. For homeopaths, their personalised ‘evidence’ of anecdotes, delusions and wishful thinking trump real objective evidence – and that is why they are deadly dangerous. The behaviour of homeopaths cannot be constrained by reason. People who are fooled by this narcissistic nonsense will have deaths on their hands.

But Peter Chappell FSHom does not stop at African healing delusions. He has another web site where he claims that he can capture his homeopathic resonances and implant them in mp3 music clips that you can listen to and download. Healingdownloads.com gives you a free sample, but then you have to fork out for further remedies. But, apparently you can cure pretty much everything including cancer. This is almost undoubtedly in breach of the Cancer Act of 1939.

The resonances are not audible of course. You just get some jazz clips whatever illness you have. Also, there is some special ‘copy protection’ to stop you healing your friends without paying. Damn. Don’t you hate Digital Rights Managament? In his FAQ, he acknowledges that all this is pretty difficult to believe,

When Faraday suggested electricity and magnetism were connected, the scientists scoffed.

Yes, people find it hard to believe when claims are made that Elvis is still alive, the moon is made of cheese and sane adults can really believe all this homeopathy nonsense.

Chappell makes great play of all this being done for charity. If money is not the answer, then why not start broadcasting resonance-loaded tunes over Nairobi radio, or distributed via iTunes?

After all this, I just have to wonder what a homeopath would actually have to do or claim for the Society of Homeopaths to actually take action, strike off and disown one of their fold?

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Rick – if you fancy a bit of direct action, then trading standards are charged with upholding the Cancer Act. Success will depend if you find an officer who is familiar with such things and fancies a more unusual investigation rather than your typical dodgy plumber.

“Thank you for the information regarding Healing Downloads. I agree that the information contained within the website contravenes the Cancer Act and I will take action to resolve the problem and amend the website.

Has anyone tried any of his remedies? I tried one of his healing downloads for Free and had some positive results. “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge”- Daniel J oorstin

So let’s get this right. These remedies don’t work because….because you say they can’t? Is that correct? But what if they do work? What if the science that you understand is not all there is? Can you think outside of the box? We have all been brainwashed. The clever bit is to see the power and corruption of the pharmaceutical industry…then see where the brainwashing has effected you.

Steph – homeopath – it is not me saying that PCs remedies cannot work. It is the accumulated body of a vast amount of scientific knowledge that says homeopathy cannot work. This is not the case of ‘science not knowing everything’ – of course it does not – but some science does know some things and that knowledge has proven to be extremely reliable. Atomic and quantum theories are the most tested and accurate theories known to us and homeopathy is in direct contradiction with them.

For homeopathy to be right would require a massive overthrow of fundamental physics. Such things happen once a century (or less) and it is possible to argue that homeopathy’s claims could not conceivably ever be true. As such, the evidence required for the effectiveness homeopathy is huge. And none exists.

However, the question you should be asking is not how does science know this is wrong, but how does Peter Chappell know he is right?

He has published no evidence, he does not reveal his preparation methods. He just claims success and then sells remedies. Does this look like the actions of someone who has stumbled on the most remarkable breakthrough in the history of medicine or does it look like someone who is deeply deluded or even fraudulent?

Science works so well because it is so self-critical. All theories and experimental results are publicly published to be criticised, torn apart, built on and shared. Thus sound knowledge is established and grows cumulatively. Unsound knowledge is discovered and discarded. The scientific method is brutally honest and self-correcting. It remorselessly exposes bad results, dodgy thinking and fraud. Can we say the same for homeopathy?

Peter Chappell states himself that his remedies are NOT homeopathic. And so, I think it is wrong to pool the two together.

True, he does not have the scientific data to back up his claims but this is due more to limited resources rather than a disregard for proper protocol. He does have years of clinical experience in the field on the ground in Africa where his remedies have proven very effective and their efficacy witnessed by numerous medics.

His charity site states: “a protocol investigating the efficacy of PC1 for HIV/AIDS has been completed and a pilot study is in preparation.” http://www.arhf.nl/research.php